Promising Practices in Humanities Phd Professional Development
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Promising Practices in Humanities PhD Professional Development Lessons Learned from the 2016–2017 Next Generation Humanities PhD Consortium SEPTEMBER 2017 Promising Practices in Humanities PhD Professional Development i Prepared by Maureen Terese McCarthy for the Council of Graduate Schools ii Promising Practices in Humanities PhD Professional Development Introduction and Overview he Next Generation Humanities Pathways are so varied and individual PhD grant program was that organizing options into coherent Tdesigned to provide funds to guidance can feel overwhelming, universities “to plan and implement both for faculty advisors and changes to graduate education that administrators hoping to provide will broaden the career preparation advice and to students. of a PhD student beyond a career in the academy” (NEH, 2016). The Next The 2016–2017 cohort of NEH Next Gen program addresses the need for Generation Humanities PhD grantees a robust network of public humanities took up the challenge of changing Locating the organizations and activities in the the narrative to value diverse career United States. To serve this need outcomes while providing the needed viability of in the long term, Next Gen targets supports to students. This cohort a persistent challenge in doctoral consists of 25 planning grantees, humanities PhDs education: programs are too often awarded funds for one year, and solely in a university designed to prepare students for only three implementation grantees, one career. Students are told, often awarded funds for three years. Every tenured position explicitly, that the only acceptable university engaged a team of leaders version of success is a tenure-track from across campus, often including is not promoting professorship at a high-intensive faculty, humanities and career center research university. This holds true staff, graduate deans and graduate intellectual rigor; across disciplines and institutions. program directors. They also reached it is crippling Although exceptions exist, this out to partners beyond the university, narrative dominates thinking about including alumni from PhD and societal health. the professional development of master’s programs and leaders of humanities doctoral students—often nearby companies, governmental to counterproductive effect. As one units, or cultural organizations. Next Gen campus notes, “locating the viability of humanities PhDs solely The Council of Graduate Schools in a university tenured position is (CGS) was asked by NEH to establish not promoting intellectual rigor; it the Next Generation Humanities PhD is crippling societal health” (Georgia Consortium (Next Gen Consortium), State University, 2017, p. 6). a collaborative learning community for the 28 Next Gen grantees. CGS A new moment is emerging, and was tasked with providing intellectual pathways beyond the professoriate leadership to this group and guiding are gaining visibility. However, when their mission to transform the culture “there is only one path to success” is of graduate education. CGS worked replaced with “you can do anything to ensure that each institution had with your degree,” students still the benefit of experience and existing lack the specific advice they need. resources as well as a network of Promising Practices in Humanities PhD Professional Development 1 peers so individual grantees did not challenges and promising solutions labor in isolation. employed by grantee universities in pursuit of the larger goals of the grant The Next Gen Consortium was program. The recommendations constituted by CGS through a series in this section come directly from of digital and in-person activities, practices planned or implemented most of which were successful in by Next Gen programs in this first engaging consortium members, year. Part II, Emerging Strategies, disseminating relevant information, offers suggestions for additional and advancing consortium goals. considerations that might be included These activities included (but were in the design of Next Gen programs. not limited to) the development of These are based on what Next Gen private and public resource pages, grantees and other members of the monthly webinars, regular email humanities community felt were “newsletter” updates, ongoing social missing or could be strengthened in media discussion (#NextGenPhD), Next Gen projects in the next round. and outreach. An accompanying document, This report was written to help guide Humanities PhD Professional applicants to NEH Next Generation Development: History of Prior Humanities PhD grants, as well as any Work provides a history of prior campus team interested in pursuing work in humanities PhD professional the goals of the Next Gen program. development, and is intended to Part I, Lessons Learned, summarizes serve as an introduction to the field the common features of Next Gen for anyone interested in professional projects and outlines some of the development for humanities PhDs. 2 Promising Practices in Humanities PhD Professional Development PART I Lessons Learned he 28 Next Gen teams an understanding of the public worked toward common value of the humanities throughout Tgoals within their own their graduate school experience. unique campus contexts. Their This section outlines common aims: to change cultures in features of the Next Gen planning humanities PhD programs to value and implementation grant projects, a range of careers for graduate shared challenges and concerns, and students and to integrate both promising strategies employed by professional development and Next Gen teams. Summary features of Next Gen grants PLANNING The 25 Next Gen planning grantees spent the year developing a plan to spark transformative change on their campuses. In many cases this planning took the form of committee meetings, town halls, and other information-gathering activities such as surveys. However it was accomplished, gathering the input of multiple stakeholder groups (e.g., faculty, students, alumni, administrators, career services professionals, employers) was essential to Next Gen planning work. Many of the 2016–2017 planning grantees, however, did not limit themselves to planning activities during the year. A large number of planning grantees also accomplished preliminary capacity building activities, such as: Creating a database of alumni contact information or careers Developing off-campus partnerships and/or other internship infrastructure Expanding institutional support beyond a core group of “champions” Conducting site visits to other universities engaged in this work or inviting representatives from other universities to speak on their own campuses CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 Promising Practices in Humanities PhD Professional Development 3 Summary features of Next Gen grants CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 A few others went even further, and created support materials or held events. These included: Summer opportunities for graduate student development and support (University of Iowa, Lehigh University) A humanities Individual Development Plan (IDP) (University of Binghamton) A podcast, Re(en)Vision PhD Podcast (UNC Chapel Hill) A podcast on Careers in the Public Humanities (University of Rhode Island) A paper-based PhD Careers packet to distribute to faculty (Penn State University) A graduate certificate program in Digital Humanities (George State University) A Humanities Clinic (Wayne State University) A website linking to resources for students (University of Kentucky) A day-long PhD careers conference (University of Binghamton) Workshop series on PhD professional development (various) IMPLEMENTATION For the three Next Gen implementation grantees, 2016–2017 was year one of a three-year process. Although these implementation projects each boasts its own distinctive features, some generalizations can be made about how this first year was spent. Activities included: Building infrastructure such as staffing, curriculum, new administrative processes, and communication channels Working to expand institutional support beyond a core group of “champions,” clarifying roles Adjusting project plans based on new circumstances (e.g., University of Delaware was awarded $300,000 from the Luce Foundation to support related work) Piloting aspects of the grant project plans, e.g.: Duke University initiated events, individual advising, and a blog for students, and incentivized curricular change within departments; The University of Chicago hosted “short courses,” workshops, and boot camps on career development topics tailored for humanities PhDs at different stages of their graduate student careers through its PATHS program; The University of Delaware launched a new recruiting process for its African American Public Humanities Initiative. 4 Promising Practices in Humanities PhD Professional Development Summary features of Next Gen grants Shared Challenges hether engaged in planning Honoring commitment to or implementation work, students to put them in the best Wthe Next Gen teams position for career success, no encountered similar challenges; this matter their chosen profession section briefly lists them. Although (including faculty) each issue was not necessarily encountered by every team, taken Avoiding lengthening already-too- together they represent some of the long time to degree issues that may need to be taken into Balancing skills training with consideration when beginning Next existing program features while Gen or related work. respecting students’ time Sparking transformative rather than Valuing